Emboldened by the Arab Spring and social media, Syrian protesters are taking to the streets over smuggled YouTube videos that appear to show a 13-year-old boy who was physically and sexually tortured while in government custody.

Update: The video has helped propel massive protests in Syria Friday. Al Jazeera reports around 10 a.m. EST that security forces fired machine guns into a crowd of about 50,000 protestors in Hama, killing 15 and injuring hundreds, according to the Local Coordinating Committees.

"They opened fire directly into the crowd of people," an eyewitness told Al Jazeera. "The people didn't flee because we thought that our big number would make them stop shooting. But they didn't."

The Syrian Free Press Facebook page has been another prominent catalyst in the protest, and several videos from the shooting have just been posted there. Warning, the videos at the bottom of this post are brutal.

Earlier this week, Fast Company reported on the apparent torture and killing of a 13-year-old boy in Syria—a YouTube video of the boy's body was a catalyst in today's massive protests, dubbed "Children's Friday."

Below is our original report...

A graphic video of the corpse of a 13-year-old boy who appears to have been sexually and physically tortured by Syrian security officials has sparked international condemnation and riots across the country. The video (see still pic above) shows Hamza Ali al-Khatib, a resident of the southern village of Jiza, and appears to have been filmed by his family after they retrieved his corpse.

The torture that the prepubescent al-Khatib appears to have been subjected to is unimaginable. His penis was severed, body is covered in bullet holes and cigarette burns, chest is covered in a massive burn mark, neck broken, kneecaps shattered, and face covered in bruises from repeated punches. Al-Khatib was taken into custody while attending an anti-government protest.

Al-Khatib's death appears to have galvanized Syrians. The death and horrific torture of a 13-year-old child, spread via social media, has spawned protests by shocked ordinary citizens. While the sadistic interrogation and punishment methods used by state security and military services have been an open secret for quite some time, the Arab Spring has bought discontent against the al-Assad government into the open.

The video clip is playing out almost like a funeral of Emmett Till for the age of social media. In the Emmett Till case, an open casket funeral was used to demonstrate the brutalities of Southern racism. In this case, al-Khatib's family appears to be using their son's death to demonstrate the brutality of Syrian security services to a worldwide audience. While it is unlikely that al-Khatib would have been out in the streets protesting if not for the ongoing chaos of the Arab Spring, the torture methods that appear to have been used on him have been a routine part of the Syrian security arsenal for decades. The message, amplified by social media, appears to be resonating with Syrians.

A second protest of women and children took place in the town of Kafr Nabel on Tuesday, May 31 as well that shouted slogans and waved signs mourning al-Khatib. Notably, one English-language sign visible on video smuggled out from the protest reads "USA People, You Lived 11 September One Time (Sic), But We Live It Everyday."

Al-Khatib was captured by Syrian security forces on April 29 and disappeared off the face of the earth for more than a month afterwards. According to the New York Times, his corpse was returned to his family several days ago on the condition that they did not discuss the mutilation and signs of torture. He is believed by his family to have died on May 25.

Shortly after al-Khatib's corpse was returned, a video appeared on YouTube detailing the condition of the child and clearly showing signs of extensive torture. A narrator, apparently the child's father, pointed out the child's wounds in halting classical Arabic with the assistance of at least one other individual wearing plastic gloves to handle the corpse.

The child's father, Ali al-Khatib, disappeared into government custody shortly after the video appeared on YouTube. He has not been seen since.

Hamza's father, Ali al-Khateeb, wanted to press charges against the army and security forces, said Hamza's cousin. Instead, Ali and his wife were visited by the secret police and threatened. "They said: 'Enough of what has happened because of you already. You know what would happen if we heard you had spoken to the media,'" said Hamza's mother, clearly terrified as she spoke to the local activist, refusing to give further details on the circumstances of her son's arrest or death.

In a manner reminiscent of the footage of Iranian protester Neda Agha-Soltan's death that went viral worldwide in 2009, YouTube clips and Facebook postings on al-Khatib's sufferings are quickly winding their way across the Arab-language internet. YouTube took down the original al-Khatib video for a short period of time; during those hours, at least five alternate versions of the video—containing the same raw footage and images but with different audio and different editing—began to make their way onto social media sites.

That evening, a new prisoner captures everyone’s attention because he has no cell of his own. He is forced to sit, his eyes blindfolded. For three long days, interrogators and torturers attempt to break him down, to no avail. Eventually I learn that he was arrested after he was found carrying CDs containing what the regime considers subversive information. He comes from northern Syria and he has probably come to Damascus to pass the information to one of the cyber-militant groups that act as a link between human rights associations and foreign media, on one side, and protesters in small villages and towns on the other

Syria's government has already began damage control for the al-Khatib video. The official Syrian Arab News Agency released a long English-language feature claiming that al-Khatib's father absolved Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of all crimes, called him "gentle and kind" and then claimed the boy's injuries were the result of being shot by anti-government protesters. As for the rest of al-Khatib's extensive injuries that weren't bullet wounds? According to the official Syrian party line, the burn marks, severed penis, broken kneecaps, and snapped neck simply didn't exist.

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Over the past few weeks I have seen some of the most barbaric acts carried out by some of my fellow human beings but these sorts of things have been going on ever since man was put on earth. I served with the Army Reserve in Australia and some of the stories the Vietnam Vets told me were equaly appaling however while people allow themslves to remain shut of from the rest of the world and continue to believe religious dogma this sort of thing will just go on

Nothing what so ever can be used to justify the appaling treatment of a fellow human being that I have seen so far on this website and a few other websites.

And the people who have shown these videos should be congratulated and in a finale statement I hope Bashir suffers the same fate as Gaddaffi who was sumarily executedwhich is all this sorry excuse for a human being deserves

Writing about this story - and watching that video - were incredibly difficult. However, this was a genuinely important technology story in which a internet video clip sparked demonstrations and riots across a restive nation. Unfortunately, not including the video in the article would have compromised everything I wrote... sadly, it's impossible to know why Syrians were so riled up without knowing the full horror of what was shown.

Also, answering some of the comments on Facebook and elsewhere (I'd prefer to keep the discourse at its origin), this is a business and tech and innovation story because social and user-generated media and sites like YouTube are revolutionizing communication. YouTube might be old hat (er.. cat) here, but it's being reapplied in places such as Syria and Egypt to amplify and speed up protests and occasional revolutions. This story answers, in a way, the question, "What if Mamie Till Mobley [Emmett Till's mom]--and everyone in Mississippi and the Civil Rights Movement everywhere--had YouTube?" This is a story about how a YouTube video itself massively amplified awareness of the kind of death that probably has happened too many times under the current Syrian regime. It's not just another story about quirky videos on YouTube. It's another use in another place of YouTube. And it's playing a prominent role in world-changing events. Further, you can't cover this without offering readers a chance to see firsthand how much impact the video packs. Maybe you don't need to see it to know. I didn't. But we warned the hell out of you either way. Discuss.

WTF. How can people do this shit to a 10 year old boy! How the hell can they do this. I saw the video and OMG I cried! If that was my child I swear i would buy a gun and i would kill them all. WHY ARE WE NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT THIS? THIS IS A CHILD? OMG I CAN BELIEVE THAT SONS OF BITCHES. I HOPE THEY BURN IN F*CKING HELL THOSE F*CKING BASTARDS. I HOPE THEY DIE A HORRABLE DEATH. HOW CAN THEY DO THIS, MY LITTLE BROTHER IN ISLAM. A TRUE MARTYR. MAY ALLAH GIVE HIM PARADISE, I HOPE THAT ONE DAY ALL THOSE SONS OF BITCHES WILL DIE A HORRABLE DEATH AND THEY BURN IN HELL. I AM GOING OUT OF MY MIND. WHY IS THE WORLD NOT DOING ANYTHING TO HELPS THOSE IN NEED?! WHAT THE FUCK... OMGGGGG

I'll be honest, rebeldogg. I couldn't watch the whole video. As the editor here, I know I was supposed to. But I edited stories on the Nick Berg beheading video, too, and all the time I wish could un-see those. I didn't want the same experience here. So, another warning, if you feel you need to watch the video to get the impact, go for it. There's an argument for doing so. I don't.